Building structure



Oct. 3 1967 I ES; Em. 3,344,566

BUILDING STRUCTURE Filed M ay 25, 1964 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Iii Passe!I'd/(Lies, Pia/hp /P.4nden9on ATTORNEYS INVENTORS Oct.'3, 1967 R. T.MILES ET AL BUILDING STRUCTURE 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 25, 1964INVENTORS Eussel 2' Mi Z es,

Philip E. findersazz W ORNEYS BY MW Oct.3, 1967 T, M s a Al. 3,344,566-

BUILDING STRUCTURE Filed May 25, I964 v 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTORSRussel Z'Ma'les, PkiZzp E. finale/son TTORNEYS Oct.3, 1967 R. T. MiLESET AL BUILDING STRUCTURE 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed May 25, 1964 8 ms WM m 2u w/ fl ATTORNEYS R. T. MILES ET BUILDING STRUCTURE Oct. 3, 1967.

5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed May 25, 1964 INVENTORS S n n IA [0A. M WP h f D/m m United States Patent .0

BUILDING STRUCTURE Russel T. Miles and Philip R. Anderson, Easton, Md;William Reddie, executor of said Philip R. Anderson, deceased, assignorsto Corinthian Cornice Systems, Inc.,

Easton Md., a corporation of Maryland Filed May 25, 1964, Ser. No.370,026 6 Claims. (Cl. 52-94) This invention relates to a structure forfinishing the roof edges of a building.

The home building industry has made great strides in recent years inperfecting more efiicient methods of construction. Variousprefabrication and preassembly methods have greatly reduced the expenseof building some of the large components that go into a house but theamount of hand labor required is still considerable. The finishing ofthe roof edges remains a slow and expensive operation in completing abuilding structure since it requires expert carpentry to cover the endsof the rafters to provide a pleasing appearance as well as to provideprotection for the rafters from the elements and provide a guttersupport.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a structure forfinishing the roof edges which will eliminate the requirement for expertcarpentry as the structure can be applied to roof rafters which areirregular both horizontally and vertically without the necessity oftrimming and shimming.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a structure forfinishing the roof edges which can be assembled in long sections whileon the ground and then raised and secured in position without thenecessity of puncturing or visible nailing.

A further object of this invention is to provide a structure forfinishing roof edges in which the supporting structure may be secured tothe building and sub-assemblies constructed on the ground and thenraised and secured in position from the top down eliminating the needfor scaffolding.

It is another object of the invention to provide a'structure forfinishing the roof edges which is light, weather resistant, has alonglife, and requires a minimum of maintenance.

In many instances it is necessary to replace the roof edge finishes ofexisting building structures.

It is therefore a further object of this invention to provide astructure which can be applied to the repair of existing buildings aswell as initial installations in new buildings.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a structure inwhich sub-assemblies thereof can be used to finish different sections ofthe roof edges.

It is an object in all forms of the invention to produce a structurewhich can be assembled without the use of special tools and in which theshapes of the members allow their use in different assemblies.

The invention, together 'with further objects and advantages thereof canbe understood by reference to the following description when taken inconnection with the FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of the brick veneerbracket ice FIG. 5 is an enlarged perspective view of the mould barreceiver of this invention;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of the mould bar receiver showing theposition of the soffit at the beginning of assembly;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of a mould bar receiver applied to a buildingof a different construction with the mould bar now in place;

FIG. 8 is a sectional view of the mould bar receiver showing it securedto the Wall of still a different construction by means of the dualpurpose fascia hanger clip; and

FIG. 9 is a sectional view along line 99 of FIG. 8.

In FIG. 1 is shown a soffit member 2 supported at one edge by fasciaplate generally designated by numeral 4 and at the opposite edge by amould bar receiver 74 and mould bar 90. The fascia plate is secured to arafter 8 by a nail 10 driven through the plate and into the rafter. Itshould be noted that the nails 10 are not exterior nails and are coveredby the roof sheathing 32. Although attachment to a single rafter isshown it is to be understood that the fascia plate is long and extendsover many rafters and can be nailed to each one. Fascia hanger clips 12are interfitted with the fascia plate and are secured to the sides ofthe rafters by nails 13. Although the rafters are conventionallyinitially sized in an effort to have their outer ends lie in a commonplane, it usually happens that a number of the rafter ends will be ofdifferent lengths. According to conventional practice, care must betaken to make the rafter ends of the same length, usually by cutting orshimming the rafter ends after they are in place. The fascia plate 4 maybe placed against the longest rafter ends, and the fascia hanger clips12 associated with the short rafters may be used to bridge the slightdistances between the ends of the shorter rafters and the fascia plate.Thus, the present invention eliminates the necessity for cutting orshimming rafter ends to bring them into the same plane.

The details of the fascia plate hanger clip 12, and gutter are shown inan enlarged view in FIGURE 3 and will be described hereinafter. Thefascia plate comprises a planar body portion 14 having a lip portion 16bent at right angles to the body and extending the length of said body.The lip is bent to provide spaced gripping legs 18, 20 coextensivetherewith and connected by a slanted portion 22. An astragal depression21 extends the length of leg 20. The legs are biased towards each otherto a position in which the distance between the legs is less than thethickness 26 of the sofiit plate. When the plate is inserted between thelegs as shown the inherent resiliency of the metal produces a tightgripping of the soflit by the legs. At the other edge the body portion14 is bent as shown to provide spaced flanges 28 and 30 along the entirelength thereof to serve as a support and locator for the roof sheathing32. The flange 30 is shorter than flange 28 to allow for driving nails10. It is pointed out at this time that all the structural elementsdisclosed in this application are formed of thin gauge metal and nailscan be driven through the elements without requiring the use ofpreformed holes. A suitable material for use in this manner is aluminum.The length of flange 30 is sufiicient to act as a barrier to any waterwhich may be driven under the roofing 34. A leg 36 makes an acute anglewith the body portion to thereby operate as a drip edge. A leg 38 isbent out of the material and is spaced from the body portion 14 asufficient distance to provide for attachment of the gutter.

The gutter is in the form of a U having legs 40, 42 connected by abottom 44. The leg 40 is formed with a hook portion 46 and the leg 42 isprovided with a hook portion 48. A brace 50 is formed with a hook porrtion 52 for engagement with hook 46 and with a hook portion 54 which ishooked around hook 48. The body portion of the brace is of Ucross-section with tabs 56 cut out of the legs and a tab 58 comprisingan abutment is cut out of the base. A jack or wedge member 60 is formedin the shape of a hollow wedge having sides 62, 64, and an end 66 whichhas a projection 68. The wedge is integral with a base 70 which isU-shaped with the legs of the U spaced to closely straddle the brace andwith the legs elongated as at 72 to be wrapped around the legs of thebrace.

To attach the gutter to fascia plate 4 the desired number of braces 50are attached to the gutter at spaced distances by manually bending hooks54 around the end of hook 48 and then interfitting hooks 52 with 46 andpressing out tabs 56. The gutter and attached braces are hooked over leg38 and the selected number of wedge members 60 are pressed between tab58 and body 14 and legs 72 are manually bent around the ends of the legsof the brace. The length of projection 68 is such that the wedge memberscan be positioned as shown in FIG. 3 by only slightly distorting thegutter in a direction to spread the legs 40, 42. The gutter ismaintained in the stressed condition by the wedges and is thus firmlyanchored in a hanger channel formed in fascia plate 4 by leg 38.

The mould bar receiver 74 and mould bar 90 for mounting the sofiitadjacent the building wall is shown in enlarged views in FIGS. 2, 7 and8. The mould bar receiver 74 comprises an L-shaped body member havinglegs 76 and 78 with the leg 76 having an astragal depression 75 alongits entire length. The leg 78 is reversely bent to provide spaced wallportions 80 and 82 and a bent portion 84 to terminate the leg 78 in aplane with the rest of the leg. The spaced wall portions defineoppositely opening grooves for purposes to be explained below. The leg78 is formed with a plurality of U-shaped openings 86 defining tabs 88'which can be bent out of the plane of the leg as shown at the right inFIG. 5. The mould bar 90 is an L-shaped wedge member having legs 92 and94. In use, the soffit 2 may be loosely held in place by placing it overtabs 88 which are bent out of the plane of legs 78. Leg 94 of mould bar90 is inserted in the groove between leg 78 and wall portion 80 and ispressed toward leg 78. The sofiit is retained between the leg 76 of themould bar receiver 74 and the top edge of mould bar 90. The resiliencyand distortion of the metal results in a tight friction fit.

In FIG. 2 is shown the mould bar receiver 74 and mould bar 90 secured inposition on a brick veneer type building structure. A bracket 98 whichis of a Z cross-section as shown in FIG. 2 is secured to a wooden partof the structure by nails 100 driven through ears 102, 104 integral withone end of the body of the bracket. The opposite end of the bracket isprovided with tabs 106, 108, 110. The tab 106 is inserted throughopening 86 in leg 87 and is manually bent to lay on one face of leg 78while brackets 108 and 110 having been previously bent lay on theopposite face of leg 78. Tab 88 is then bent so that one edge thereofbears against a face of the leg of the Z as shown in FIGURE 4 to preventlateral movement of the bracket. A frieze plate 112 having an offsetedge to fit into the groove provided by walls 80, 82 and bent to followbent portion 84 of the mould bar receiver 74 is forced into said groovewhile the opposite edge of the frieze is secured to the brick wall. Inorder to secure the frieze plate to a brick wall, one edge of the plateis bent to provide legs 114, 116 to thereby define a groove with thebody of the plate into which is slid a plurality of fasteners 118.Referring to FIGURE 4 each fastener comprises a cylindrical portion 120for reception of a grooved nail, screw, or similar element 122. Integralwith the portion 120 are legs 124, 126 which are cut away as at 128 forreception of leg 116.

In FIG. 7 is shown a structure in which the mould bar receiver isfastened directly to a wooden structure. In this case the mould barreceiver is nailed in position by driving nails 148 through leg 78. Thesoffit member 2 is then forced against leg 76 by mould bar which retainsthe soflit as heretofore described and hides the nails.

In FIG. 8 is shown a structure in which the mould bar is retainedagainst a masonry wall. In this case the fascia hanger clips 12 areinserted in the openings formed by bending out tabs 88 in the mannershown in FIG. 9 and by pivoting the clip from the dot-dash line positionin the direction of the arrow to the full line position. The clips canthen.be nailed to a wood sill 150 for example, by driving nails 152directly through the clip.

Fascia hanger clip 12 comprises a sheet metal body having a cut-outdefining a slanted edge making the same angle with the vertical asportion 22 of the fascia plate. The other end of the body is formed withan ear 156 and a triangular tab portion 158 bent out of the plane of thebody. When used to support the fascia, it is inserted in the grooveformed by portions 14, 16, and 22 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 and slidtherealong to a rafter and nailed thereto. When used to support mouldbar receiver 74, the ear 156 is hooked behind leg 78 through opening 86and rotated in the direction of the arrow. This causes tab portion 158to wedge behind leg 78 and firmly hold the clip as shown in FIGURE 9.

Before sheathing is applied to the building structure, the fascia 4,gutter, sofiit 2, mould bar receiver 74, mould bar 90, frieze bar 112,and bracket 98, or hanger 12, can be preassembled as a completed unit onthe ground or at any other convenient location and transported as a unitto the roof whereupon it can be installed by working from the roof downrather than from scaffolding up, thus eliminating the need for thelatter. It is then only a simple matter for any unskilled laborer todrive the proper number of nails to complete the mounting. The completedassembly may be of any convenient length, for example, in theneighborhood of twenty to forty feet. Where necessary or desirable, thestructure can be mounted on a building a single element at a time or inthe form of one or more preassembled sub-units, such as a sub-unitconsisting of fascia plate 4 with the gutter attached, or a sub-unitconsisting of mould bar receiver 74 and frieze plate 112 with mountingbracket 98 attached. The sofiit plate 2 can then be inserted betweenlegs 18, 20 and temporarily mounted on the mould bar receiver by bendingoutwardly a few tabs 88 as shown in FIG. 5 and supporting the soffitmember thereon pending the final positioning by forcing into positionthe mould bar 90. As a final step the frieze plate with its assembledfasteners is forced into the groove between walls 80, 82 and elements122 are pushed into the gripping members 130.

Specific reference is hereby made to our copending applications Ser. No.95,901 and Ser. No. 231,499 which disclose some of the basic structureentailed herein, this patent application constituting improvement andmodifications in the previously disclosed basic structures.

Although the present invention has been shown and described in terms ofpreferred embodiments, nevertheless various changes and modificationssuch as are obvious to one skilled in the art are deemed to be withinthe purview of the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. A soffit mounting and frieze assembly comprising an L-shaped bodymember, means integral with one leg of the body defining a pair ofoppositely opening grooves, an L-shaped wedge member mounted with oneleg in one of the grooves and the other leg adjacent the other leg ofthe body member and a frieze member fitted in the other of said grooves.

2. A soflit mounting comprising an L-shaped body member, a wedge member,means mounting the wedge member on one leg of the L with one side of thewedge adjacent the other leg, said one leg of said body member beinggenerally vertical and said other leg being generally horizontal in thenormal operating position, a plurality of openings in said one legdefining a plurality of bendable tabs; a bracket, a plurality ofbendable tabs on the bracket, one of said tabs extending through one ofsaid openings and bent in one direction to contact and bear on one faceof said one leg, others of said tabs being bent in the oppositedirection to contact and bear on the opposite face of said one leg; thetab defined by said one opening being bent to contact a side of thebracket.

3. A soflit mounting comprising an L-shaped body member, a wedge memberhaving a pair of legs, and means mounting the wedge member on one leg ofthe L with one side of the wedge adjacent the other leg, a plurality ofopenings formed in said one leg, and a sheet metal hanger clip securedin some of said openings.

4. Apparatus for finishing the edge of a roof having rafter endsoverhanging a building wall comprising a sofiit, a generally verticalfascia, means to secure said sofiit to said fascia, and a sofiitmounting engaging one edge of said soffit, said sofiit mountingcomprising a substantially L-shaped body member, said body member havinga generally horizontal leg and a generally vertical leg, said generallyvertical leg being provided with means to define an upwardly openinggroove beneath said generally horizontal leg, and a Wedge member havinga downwardly directed leg with its lower edge mounted in said groove andhaving another leg adjacent and spaced from the generally horizontal legof the body member and defining therewith a space for the reception ofthe edge of said soflit, said another leg of said wedge member beingpositioned below and supporting thereon said edge of said sofiit.

5. Apparatus for finishing the edge of a roof having rafter endsoverhanging a building wall comprising a soffit, a fascia plate, meansforming one edge of said plate gripping an edge of the soflit, means forsecuring the plate to the rafter ends, and mounting means frictionallygripping an opposite edge of the soffit for attachment to the wall, saidmounting means including a generally L-shaped body member, a wedgemember, and means mounting the Wedge member on one leg of the L with oneside of the wedge adjacent the other leg, said one side of the wedgeengaging the lower surface of said opposite edge of said sofiit.

6. Apparatus for finishing the edge of a roof having rafter endsoverhanging a building wall comprising a sofiit, a fascia plate, meansforming one edge of said plate gripping an edge of the soffit, meansforming an opposite edge of the plate for securing the plate to therafters, and mounting means frictionally gripping an opposite edge ofthe sofiit for attachment to the wall, said mounting means including asubstantially L-shaped body member, a wedge member, means mounting thewedge member on one leg of the L with one side of the wedge adjacent theother leg, said one leg of said L-shaped body member being generallyvertical and said other leg being generally horizontal, a plurality ofopenings in said one leg defining a plurality of bendable tabs; abracket, a plurality of bendable tabs on the bracket, one of said tabsextending through one of said openings and bent in one direction tocontact and bear on one face of said one leg, others of said tabs beingbent in the opposite direction to contact and bear on the opposite faceof said one leg; the tab defined by said one opening being bent tocontact a side of the bracket.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,469,840 5/ 1949 Orth 52-603,098,322 6/1963 Greene 52-11 3,135,070 2/1964 Waring et al 52-11 XR3,170,266 2/1965 Roberts et a1 52-11 XR 3,181,275 5/1965 Schroter 52-498XR DAVID J. WILLIAMOWSKY, Primary Examiner. HARRISON R. MOSELEY,Examiner.

1. A SOFFIT MOUNTING AND FRIEZE ASSEMBLY COMPRISING AN L-SHAPED BODYMEMBER, MEANS INTEGRAL WITH ONE LEG OF THE BODY DEFINING A PAIR OFOPPOSITELY OPENING GROOVES, AN L-SHAPED WEDGE MEMBER MOUNTED WITH ONELEG IN ONE OF THE GROOVES AND THE OTHER LEG ADJACENT THE OTHER LEG OFTHE BODY MEMBER AND A FRIEZE MEMBER FITTED IN THE OTHER OF SAID GROOVES.